Doling Out Democracy

Payaam-e-Maghrib

, by SYED HUSAIN PASHA

The eventful year of 2011 is fading fast and the dawn of 2012 is about to break. The world is abuzz with talk about Islam and Democracy. And people, good people everywhere, are busy patching one to the other.

They seem to think that somehow the time has come to concoct a brew containing both ingredients: Islam and Democracy.

The allure is irresistible.

And the drums of Democracy are rolling around the world, including the Muslim world.

But Muslims have their own special way, as they often boast, of doing things. And doing Democracy is no exception.

But Muslims’ way of doing things is nothing if not remarkable, or, should we say interesting.

Mindboggling may not be too strong an expression.

And often, it has very little to do with reality, logic or common sense.

As for science, Muslims chased that Cinderella from their home and habitat a long time ago.

As a result, in Muslim culture, and in Muslim lands, it seems to be generally the foxes that guard the henhouses.

And it is absolute Muslim monarchs, and other sundry tyrants and dictators, that dole out democracy to their subjects in ways and quantities – and as per the schedule and framework – they and their sycophantic and traitorous native advisers and former colonial foreign masters see fit.

And they have at their beck and call hosts of religious hirelings to put their seal of approval on these moves and keep the gullible and oppressed Muslim masses quiet and subdued.

But you cannot say Muslims do not have a sense of humour, or even a sense of irony.

Muslims often seem to do things in ways that makes you want to burst out laughing.

That is when you have run out of tears to cry over the sorry plight of the poor, poor, poor Muslim men, women and children groaning under the yoke of some of the most barbaric and brutal oppression known to history.

Take Egypt, for example, which is a country of roughly 83 million people today.

The tragic and benighted land of Egypt has been ground to dust under the heel of one repressive military dictatorship after another for nearly 60 years.

Today, the march to Democracy in Egypt will now be headed and supervised by a body that calls itself The Supreme Military Council, what else.

And that Supreme Military Council of Egypt is headed by a man who calls himself not just a General, but a “Field Marshal” – a title given to him by General Hosni Mubarak who used to be the Military Dictator of Egypt for over 30 years before him.

Field Marshal Tantawi served the former Military Dictator Hosni Mubarak for 20 years as his most loyal and faithful Defence Minister.

This is the man, and the other generals in cahoots with him in the Supreme Military Council, who will now preside over Egypt’s transition from 60 years of the most tyrannical military dictatorship to freedom and democracy!